Saturday, April 26, 2025

Grains, particularly wheat have been getting a bad rap lately. Trend setters say cutting the gluten from your diet will boost your energy, lighten your load and improve your overall health. Others say gluten free is just the latest fad, and dropping it when you don’t have to can be dangerous. Maria Hayes reports.

As a personal trainer, Ernie Schramayr is among the first to hear about the newest trends in fitness and nutrition. He’s also quick to identify the latest fads: “Definitely right now, the buzz is about gluten.”

Clients are always looking for ways to get fitter, leaner and healthier. But those searching for a gluten free endorsement won’t find it here: “If somebody thinks eating gluten free frosted flakes is better than having an omelette with some vegetables in it and some whole grain toast, I don’t think it is.”

Schramayr likens the gluten free craze to the fat free version 20-years ago. He counsels clients to adopt a diet that aids metabolism and stablizes blood sugar levels: “You’ve got to include fruits and vegetables. You’ve got to include lean proteins and you do need complex carbohydrates.”

Avoiding gluten is a necessity for about 1% of North Americans diagnosed with celiac disease. An immune condition triggered by the wheat component. It causes inflammation in the small bowel. Hindering the absorption of nutrients. Others are diagnosed with a non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Gluten avoidance is critical.

Dundas chef Rhonda Barr has spent years researching and creating gluten free recipes, foods and flour blends to meet the needs of those with celiac. Initially her creations were all about taste. These days, she’s concentrating on nutrition too: “You actually lose more than you gain when you start gluten free, in that without having fortified you’re really low on the fibre, on your protein, on your b vitamins. So you really have to pay attention and bring that back in your diet somehow. If you’re not careful, what can happen is you can create a type 2 diabetes because you’re not regulating your blood sugars with the food you’re putting in your system.”

Demand for her products has exploded in the last few years. She estimates only half of her customers are celiac: “It’s a fad now. It’s a diet and a lot of people will come to my store and they’re like ‘Oh, I’m going to lose all this weight. But they’re not. Honestly a cupcake is a cupcake.”

The architect of this fad is believed to be U.S. Cardiologist Dr. William Davis, who penned the book wheatbelly. He appeared recently on CHCH’s Square Off: “Wheat is also in licorice, in taco seasoning, in frozen dinners in salad dressing. You’re going to get frustrated and say gee there’s nothing on the processed food shelf that doesn’t have wheat in it. I’m going to argue that it was put there on purpose because it is an appetite stimulant. The advertising of gluten free diets, the publicity that surrounds how bad wheat is, I think really does everybody a disservice.”

Dr. David Armstrong is the Head of Gastroenterology at Hamilton Health Sciences. He says people are endangering their health when they restrict their diet for no good medical reason: “People who just go for a straight gluten free diet without looking at the other components of the diet and making sure they get their B vitamins and their B12 and their iron and all of the other nutrients are at risk of causing more long term harm than they are producing any benefit from avoiding wheat.”

Gluten free by choice rather than necessity often makes people feel healthier. And Barr says the reason for that is simple: “The only reason I’d say it’s healthy is because you’re more cognizant of what you’re putting in your mouth.”

The experts we spoke with agree the secret to a healthy diet is bypassing processed foods. Get back to cooking in the kitchen, and eat a variety of foods in moderation.